AMD Radeon R5 M430 vs NVIDIA GeForce 930A Comparison

The benchmark data places the NVIDIA GeForce 930A and AMD Radeon R5 M430 in the same performance tier, but the numbers reveal a clear edge for the NVIDIA part. The GeForce 930A sits at the 31st percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon R5 M430 sits just below at the 30th percentile. Their average benchmark scores—5317 for the NVIDIA and 5018 for the AMD—show a gap of roughly 6%, a meaningful margin for two mobile GPUs aimed at similar entry-level roles. The data does not show a single test where the AMD part wins outright; in the only head-to-head benchmark available, the GeForce 930A takes it. This is a story of two chips that are close in the broader ranking but diverge clearly in raw compute output.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The sole direct comparison in the data is the Geekbench OpenCL test, which measures general-purpose compute performance. Here, the NVIDIA GeForce 930A scores 5317 against the AMD Radeon R5 M430’s 5152, a delta of 3.2% in favor of NVIDIA. That 165-point gap is not trivial—it places the GeForce 930A ahead of its rival in the only apples-to-apples metric provided. The AMD part does have a second benchmark entry, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 4884, but no corresponding Vulkan result exists for the NVIDIA chip, so it cannot be used for a direct comparison.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card adds context. The GeForce 930A’s closest competitor is the NVIDIA GeForce 840M, which averages 5322—a slim 0.1% advantage over the 930A. The GeForce 930A also edges out the GeForce GTX 980M (5308, +0.2%) and the GeForce 940M (5284, +0.6%), while trailing the AMD Radeon R7 M445 (5358, -0.8%). For the Radeon R5 M430, the nearest rival is the AMD FirePro W4170M at 5034, which is 0.3% ahead of the M430. The M430 beats the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics (4998, +0.4%) and the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 (4979, +0.8%), but falls short of the AMD Radeon R7 M340 (5063, -0.9%). These figures show both cards hovering in a narrow band of performance, yet the GeForce 930A consistently lands on the upper side of that band.

Where Each One Wins

The data grants the GeForce 930A a single win in the head-to-head benchmark, with zero wins for the Radeon R5 M430. That translates to a clear, if narrow, overall victory for NVIDIA in compute workloads. The GeForce 930A’s advantage in OpenCL likely stems from its higher clock speeds and larger execution resource count relative to the AMD chip, which the specification data supports. For users running OpenCL-accelerated tasks—such as video encoding, image processing, or physics simulations—the GeForce 930A is the safer pick based on this test.

The Radeon R5 M430’s case is less straightforward. Its only benchmark win comes in the form of a Vulkan score that has no NVIDIA counterpart to compare against, meaning it cannot claim a direct victory. However, that Vulkan result of 4884 does indicate the AMD card is capable in that API, and for workloads that leverage Vulkan specifically, it may hold an advantage over the GeForce 930A, which has no recorded Vulkan score in the data. The AMD card’s larger memory pool (4 GB versus 2 GB) could also benefit tasks that require more frame buffer, though the benchmark data does not explicitly test that scenario.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce 930A is built on the Maxwell architecture, using the GM108 chip fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 1,020 million transistors into a 77 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.2 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon R5 M430 employs the older GCN 1.0 architecture with the Jet chip, also on TSMC’s 28 nm node, but with fewer resources: 690 million transistors on a 56 mm² die, for a density of 12.3 million per square millimeter. The Maxwell design is newer and more transistor-dense, which contributes to its higher performance per clock.

Compute resources differ significantly. The GeForce 930A has 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 8 raster output units (ROPs). The Radeon R5 M430 has 320 shading units, 20 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. NVIDIA’s part thus provides 20% more shading units and TMUs, which directly explains its higher fill rates and floating-point throughput. The GeForce 930A achieves a pixel rate of 7.528 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 22.58 GTexel/s, while the AMD card manages 6.840 GPixel/s and 17.10 GTexel/s, respectively. FP32 compute is likewise higher on the NVIDIA side at 722.7 GFLOPS versus 547.2 GFLOPS for the AMD part.

Specification Differences

Clock speeds and memory configurations set these two apart further. The GeForce 930A runs at a base clock of 928 MHz with a boost up to 941 MHz, while the Radeon R5 M430 operates at a lower 780 MHz base and 855 MHz boost. Memory is where the AMD card counters: it offers 4 GB of DDR3 on a 64-bit bus, versus 2 GB of DDR3 on the same 64-bit bus for the NVIDIA. However, bandwidth is nearly identical, with the GeForce 930A at 16.02 GB/s and the Radeon R5 M430 at 16.00 GB/s, both running at 2 Gbps effective. The NVIDIA card has a 33 W TDP, whereas the AMD card’s TDP is not listed in the data, making direct power comparisons impossible.

API support shows a split in favor of AMD on DirectX but NVIDIA on Vulkan. The Radeon R5 M430 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the GeForce 930A supports DirectX 12 (11_0), a slight edge for AMD. Both cards support OpenGL 4.6. For Vulkan, the GeForce 930A lists version 1.4, whereas the AMD card lists 1.2.170, giving NVIDIA a newer API version. The GeForce 930A’s generation is “GeForce 900A” with a predecessor of GeForce 800A, while the Radeon R5 M430 belongs to the “Gem System (R5 M400)” generation, succeeding the “Solar System” and preceding “Polaris Mobile.” Both cards are marked as end-of-life, and both use a PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface. The NVIDIA card was released on March 12, 2015; the AMD card’s release date is not provided.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce 930A has an average score of 5317, compared to the AMD Radeon R5 M430’s 5018, a difference of roughly 6%.

Q: How much faster is the GeForce 930A in the OpenCL test?

A: The GeForce 930A scores 5317 versus 5152 for the Radeon R5 M430, a delta of 3.2% in NVIDIA’s favor.

Q: Does the Radeon R5 M430 have any benchmark where it beats the GeForce 930A?

A: No. In the only head-to-head test (Geekbench OpenCL), the GeForce 930A wins. The AMD card has a separate Vulkan score of 4884, but the GeForce 930A has no Vulkan score to compare.

Q: What are the memory capacities of each card?

A: The GeForce 930A has 2 GB of DDR3, while the Radeon R5 M430 has 4 GB of DDR3, both on a 64-bit bus.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The GeForce 930A has 384 shading units, compared to 320 on the Radeon R5 M430.

Q: What is the DirectX support for each card?

A: The GeForce 930A supports DirectX 12 (11_0), while the Radeon R5 M430 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), a slight advantage for AMD.

The Verdict

The data points to the NVIDIA GeForce 930A as the stronger performer. It wins the only direct benchmark, has a higher average score, and offers superior compute resources—more shading units, higher clocks, and greater fill rates. Its 33 W TDP, though not compared to the AMD card’s unlisted TDP, suggests it is a reasonable fit for thin-and-light laptops. The GeForce 930A is the pick for users prioritizing OpenCL compute performance or who want the higher percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The AMD Radeon R5 M430 should be chosen when memory capacity matters more than raw speed. Its 4 GB frame buffer is double that of the GeForce 930A, which could help in texture-heavy scenarios or when running multiple displays, though the benchmark data does not confirm this advantage. It also supports a slightly newer DirectX feature level (11_1 versus 11_0), which may appeal to users running applications that rely on that specific feature set. For everything else, the GeForce 930A’s lead in the OpenCL test and its higher average score make it the data-backed recommendation for general-purpose GPU tasks.